Web Shows

Resources

Mike Rowe teaches voice-over (and a musical bonus)

(CBS News) Ever listen to a commercial and say to yourself, "That voice sounds familiar?" or "Who is that, I think I know him/her?" And it's usually Jon Hamm or Lisa Kudrow -- or Mike Rowe! While Jon or Lisa have nothing to do with this post, besides the fact they both do voice-overs on television commercials, it is interesting to know a bit about how they do them. And that's what Discovery Channel's host of "Dirty Jobs" Rowe teaches in his YouTube series, "Adventures in Voiceover."

I bet you thought they read the script verbatim over and over, trying to achieve just the right intonation and pronunciation. Well, that's what I thought, too. But it turns out, very talented VO experts can create the perfect ad just by listening to a recording and repeating it on slight delay. And while it sounds easy, it's definitely not. Rowe makes it look effortless, but it seems super confusing to me -- and apparently only very experienced VO professionals master this technique.

So bravo, Mike, and thanks for teaching us another semi-useless, but none-the-less fascinating factoid that we can share with our friends during happy hour today! And, as fun, musical bonus that happens to involve "voices," but in a wholly different way, go ahead and take in the Queen classic "Bohemian Rhapsody" done with a series of impressive impressions by Paul Vlahos below.